DENVER — Staff at KIPP Northeast Denver Middle School jumped into action after shots were fired near the Green Valley Ranch school on Tuesday.
The Denver Police Department said no one was injured, but a nearby home was struck.
Athletic director Gordon Lyng typically goes for a walk around the campus if the weather is nice and he has the time. He did just that on Tuesday.
"I'm walking outside, and I just kind of hear a couple bangs. And I kind of froze and look up, and then I heard a lot more, and I saw a lot of the bullets flying by. I saw them bouncing off of the pavement, and it was kind of at that moment it was a fight or flight moment," Lyng recalled. "I knew I needed to get out of there, so I ran back into the building."
Lyng said that when he entered the school, his concern was on the safety of the community. The school instantly implemented a secure perimeter, locking external doors and ensuring all of the students were safely inside the building.
"It was all hands on deck. Every administrator and teacher had something to do with the safety of our children," Lyng said. "I've got a lot of love for a lot of the teachers that also had no idea what was happening, but they still put themselves in a position to keep kids safe and keep our community safe."
Shots were not fired on the school campus, but Lyng, who has worked in education for the last seven years, said he is always prepared for the worst-case scenario.
"I've thought about it. I've walked our campus. I've thought about a million scenarios. What to do if this happens, what to do if that happens," Lyng said. "I'm not necessarily afraid of safety concerns. I'm more so empowered to be the one to make those safety calls or to be in a position to keep kids safe."
KIPP Colorado Public Schools is a charter network of six schools that is authorized under Denver Public Schools (DPS). Taamiti Bankole, the chief external affairs officer, was at Northeast Denver Middle School on Tuesday. Bankole said they worked with DPS and Denver PD to dismiss their students that day.
"It was helpful that a number of folks were on campus to kind of support with dismissal, but truthfully, [the staff] would have been fine without us because, unfortunately, this is something that people are trained for, and they know how to do, and they already had their stations in place," Bankole explained.
Bankole discussed how educators' roles have evolved over the last few decades.
"We didn't have to deal with cell phones in the same way. Didn't have to deal with the threat of gun violence in the same way, all the different things that we have to plan for now," Bankole said. "It's different being a student nowadays than it was even when I was a kid. And so it means that we also have to adjust as educators."
The day of the shots fired call, Denver7 received an email from a parent of a student at the school, who was disappointed in the lack of coverage the incident received. The mother wrote that she hopes "I can one day feel comfortable with sending my child to school and knowing she is going to return back to me better than when she left home."
The time and space to process an incident like this is something Bankole said the school strives to give to staff, teachers, and students.
"Part of us having this conversation and figuring out, how can we make sure that people feel safe? How can we make sure that we're getting to the cause of things?" Bankole posed. "We want kids to be able to come to school, feel safe on their way to school, feel safe within the school buildings, because we know that students learn best when they feel safe, they feel loved, they feel cared for. And I would say the same is true for adults, too."
Lyng understands the reality of the world around him and what that means for his role working inside a school. Ultimately, that will not stop him from doing what he loves.
"I love our community. I don't see myself anywhere else. I love the job that I do in the community," Lyng said.
Denver PD said it is investigating this incident, and no arrests have been made as of Thursday. Investigators ask anyone who has information related to the shooting to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
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